ABC Finishes No. 1 in the Eclipse Ratings Race

Eight of those networks were from the news genre. Discovery and Science covered the eclipse as well.

ABC News’s coverage of the eclipse attracted 7.9 million total viewers from 1 – 3 p.m. ET. That’s more than any other network. Additionally, ABC’s eclipse coverage ranked No. 1 in 21 of the top 25 local markets.

Elsewhere on the broadcast side – CBS took second place in all key categories, followed by NBC, Univision, and Telemundo. The aforementioned Univision finished ahead of NBC in the A25-54 demo.

On the cable news side – Fox News was No. 1 in total viewers, followed by CNN, The Weather Channel, and HLN.

CNN was No. 1 across cable news in the key A25-54 demo.

World News Tonight anchor David Muir led ABC News’s coverage of the eclipse from Charleston, SC, while CBS Evening News anchor Anthony Mason was stationed in Carbondale, Illinois, considered the “crossroads” of the eclipse’s path. NBC (Lester Holt), CNN (Wolf Blitzer) and Fox News (Shepard Smith) decided not to station their respective news anchors on the ground, which seemed to suit Smith in particular just fine.